Arriving at my door,
'twas both treat and delight,
an apparition stepped from time -
Miss Dickinson in white.
Bearing gifts of flowers
and loaves of fresh baked bread,
she acquiesced to recite verse
though crowds were her great dread.
Speculation on life
she declines to speak of,
Though smiles at names - Master and Judge -
alluding to her love.
"FORBIDDEN fruit a flavor has
That lawful orchards mocks;
How luscious lies the pea within
The pod that Duty locks!"
Apologies implied -
naturally elusive,
party guests were overjoyed
by our gem reclusive.
Her graciousness was rich,
rewarding, and yet, brief -
stolen hearts whisked away
by our poetic thief.
Citizens of Amherst
applauded me as host,
sharing letters and poetry
penned by beloved ghost.
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Author Notes
Picture courtesy of the Amherst College Digital Collection
My inspiration is poetry by Emily Dickinson:
Please note above, the red text represents Emily speaking, it is one of her short poems.
Although well noted as a recluse, Emily loved gardening, baking, and poetry. She wrote family and friends often and sent them gifts of her flowers and baked treats. It is said that her father would eat no other bread than hers.
Upon her death, her sister found 800 of her poems bound in books and stashed away in a trunk.
Emily was buried in a white coffin wearing a white dress.
(courtesy of bartleby.com)
LXXXVII
FORBIDDEN fruit a flavor has
That lawful orchards mocks;
How luscious lies the pea within
The pod that Duty locks!
--Emily Dickinson
LXXIX
I YEARS had been from home,
And now, before the door,
I dared not open, lest a face
I never saw before
Stare vacant into mine
And ask my business there.
My business - just a life I left,
Was such still dwelling there?
I fumbled at my nerve,
I scanned the windows near;
The silence like an ocean rolled,
And broke against my ear.
I laughed a wooden laugh
That I could fear a door,
Who danger and the dead had faced,
But never quaked before.
I fitted to the latch
My hand, with trembling care,
Lest back the awful door should spring,
And leave me standing there.
I moved my fingers off
As cautiously as glass,
And held my ears, and like a thief
Fled gasping from the house.
--Emily Dickinson
Interesting links:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/biography/emily_dickinson_biography
https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/
An excerpt from her biography at www.brainyquote.com:
Lifestyle and Reputation
Dickinson may have suffered from agoraphobia, anxiety, depression, or a combination of those conditions. As she aged she became less and less willing to venture from her home or even from her room. As early as 1867 she began talking to visitors from behind closed doors. People in town saw her rarely, but they noticed that she almost always wore white. They called her the "Queen Recluse," the "partially-cracked poetess," and "the Myth."
Dickinson was an enthusiastic gardener and amateur botanist. She wrote, "Nature is our eldest mother, she will do no harm." Dickinson compiled an extensive leather-bound herbarium - a collection of pressed flowers and plants - with 424 specimens. She carefully identified them, using their Latin names.
One warm gesture from her father came in the form of a Newfoundland dog, Carlo. Dickinson counted Carlo as one of her closest friends. She wrote, "Dogs are better than human beings because they know but do not tell." She mourned his death in 1866; they had been together for sixteen years.
Dickinson loved to bake, especially bread. She saw baking as a loving gesture, a symbol of a happy home.
Dickinson's father died suddenly, in 1874. His funeral was held at the Homestead; Dickinson listened from her room with her door cracked open.
At about the age of fifty, after her father's death, Dickinson entered into a romantic exchange of letters with Otis Phillips Lord, an elderly judge on the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. In her letters she was flirty, and the judge eventually proposed marriage. In reply Dickinson wrote, "Dont you know you are happiest while I withhold and not confer - dont you know that 'No' is the wildest word we consign to Language?" She was as reluctant to risk a real relationship as she was to use apostrophes.
In 1882 Dickinson's mother died, as did Judge Otis Phillips Lord two years later. Worst of all, in 1883 her eight-year-old nephew, Gilbert, whom she loved a great deal, lost his life. After that, Dickinson generally refused to see people, including Gilbert's mother, Susan, her own childhood friend, to whom she had sent more poems than any other individual. Others in her circle of family and friends passed away over the years, and Dickinson felt a cumulative sense of loss from which she felt unable to recover.
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If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. Emily Dickinson
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/e/emily_dickinson.html
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